while he kills himself by swallowing God knows how
many sharp splinters? Pichounet, come here!' And
picking up Christophe she proceeded to grope in his
mouth with her thumb which he tried to spit out,
disliking its taste, because it was salt and decidedly
soapy. ^
Marie scolded: 'Not an hour can I trust you, it
seems, and yet well do you know I have much to do,
for on Monday I always scrub out the kitchen; there
is also the washing which I must iron; there are also
your socks and not one with a heel — I cannot imagine
what you do to your heels, ai, there are holes the size
of duck's eggs. Santo Ano d'At! Here are two hulking
men yet neither can lift a child from the floor. I had
better have left him in the charge of Mireio,'
And because she was so seldom angry with them,
Jouse and Anfos were at first nonplussed; then each
in his own way felt rather alarmed.
Jouse stammered: 'It comes of his being very small
yet terribly active —a wood-louse crawls slower. A
wood-louse I can catch. . . .*
But here Marie broke in: 'He has not crawled an
inch; he sits under your nose with his mouth full of
shavings and you find it amusing. As for Anfos, he
pretends to be fond of the child yet does nothing at
all when he sees him in danger!5 And these things she
said, not from hardness of heart but because she had
really been badly frightened.
Poor Anfos made a queer rough sound in his throat
as he tried to swallow the lump that had risen — his
brain was groping for suitable words, and the more it
groped the more it felt muddled. Meanwhile Chris-
tophe had begun to howl dismally, vaguely sensing
some kind of domestic upheaval.
Mane soothed him, stroking his straight red hair,
the hair that was so much redder than his father's; the
hair that would always refuse to curl, try though she
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